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17
sunday
“Geek is the new cool,” says Jonathan Coulton, author of the cool-geek anthem “Code Monkey,” a hummable summation of cubicle life among the programming class. The song’s brutally funny verisimilitude is due to Coulton’s former computer-jockey life. Now the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter is a traveling musician, but the clock-punching mind-set remains in the form of his “Thing a Week” series—“things” being newly written songs every seven days. One such tune, “Re: Your Brains,” an interoffice memo as sung by zombies, is a current Dr. Demento fave. But Coulton’s melodic sense is as substantial as his comic chops, making songs such as “Christmas Is Interesting” (“like a knife in your heart”) extra-catchy. And if you only hear the plaintive high-lonesome melody of “Womb With a View,” the song is heartbreaking; if you grok the lyrics, it’s heartbreaking and satisfyingly odd. Coulton opens for fellow funny songwriters and Demento regulars Paul and Storm at 8 p.m. at Jammin’ Java, 227 Maple Ave. East, Vienna. $12. (703) 255-2566. (Dave Nuttycombe)